Spyker C12

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March 8, 2007 If you haven’t heard the name Spyker before, we suspect you’ll hear it a lot more from now on as the aspiring Dutch Supercar maker is now trading in the black, has some aggressive new cars such as the Spyker D12 Peking-to-Paris Super Sports Utility Vehicle (SSUV) entering the marketplace, and is just about to begin competing in the most visible sporting event on the planet – Formula One. Spyker purchased the Midland F1 team, did a deal to secure Ferrari engines and hired Mike Gascoine as Chief Technical Officer – the group clearly doesn’t wish to remain in a rear field position. At Geneva, Spyker and Zagato announced the Spyker C12 Zagato, a limited edition of 24 sports cars. The idea for the car came from a discussion between Victor Muller, CEO of Spyker Cars, and Andrea Zagato, CEO of Zagato, at the Villa d’Este Concorso d’Eleganza. “Last April, at Villa d’Este, we sat down and discussed the increasing market demand for truly one-off and limited edition super sport cars,” said Muller. “In a certain sense the modern market is not unlike the 1930’s, where wealthy customers would order exotic bespoke designs from high-end coach builders on Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Delage, Delahaye and Isotta-Fraschini chassis, just to mention a few.” Norihiko Harada, Zagato’s Automotive Chief Designer, and Muller co-operated closely to design the rear wheel drive sports car, based on the Spyker C12 Spyder. The C12 is powered by the 6.0 liter, 12 cylinder, 500 bph W12 engine from Volkswagen and is equipped with a six-speed manual or automatic gear box with F1 style shifting, Chronoswiss instruments and a Zagato designed full leather interior with brushed aluminium instrument panel. The C12 Zagato has an aluminium body with stainless steel roof rails and has many F1 derived design details such as an F1 nose, air scoop, chimneys, mirrors, rain light, fuel flap and diffuser. It has a panoramic roof that features the Double Bubble, a typical Zagato style element. Top speed is 310 km/h (193 mph).